bieups - Tumblr blog

[bieups]

다다음주부터 스윙댄스 수업을 하기로 했다~! 영어로 할 거니까 별로 긴장되지 않은데 그 동호회에 친구 없어... 새로운 친구 만나야겠다 :)

전댄스파트너가 축하한다면서 나중에 소셜 놀러 온다고 해서 학생들한테 잘 가르쳐야 된다 ㅎㅎ

올해는 열심히 살거야~

[bieups]

1월 // January

I’ve been in the US for the past couple of weeks, so I haven’t been posting. My Jan. monthly post is late but I’m flying back home tomorrow and will be doing some studying during the rest of my vacation time~

1일 - 새해 / New Year: The first day of the new year is a holiday, just like in lots of other countries!

6일 - 소한 / Sohan: One of the 24 yearly divisions, this is when the cold sets in.

20일 - 대한 / Daehan: Another of the 24 yearly divisions, this is the coldest time of the year.

[bieups]

2023.12.10 || 일요일에 홍대 가서 맛있게 먹었다

[bieups]

8 years living in Korea and today I learned yet another word for name

함자

[명사] (높이는 말로) 남의 이름.

As seen in this message from our principal:

오늘부터 한자 수업을 담당하실 선생님을 새로 모셨습니다. 함자는 ㅇㅇㅇ 선생님이십니다. 잘 부탁드립니다.

[bieups]

12월 // December

Not much going on this month~ I just have a couple more weeks of work and then it's winter vacation!

7일 - 대설 / Daeseol: one of the 24 seasonal divisions; this is the day said to have the heaviest snowfall (we'll see if it's true this year...)

22일 - 동지 / Dongji: the longest night of the year aka the Winter Solstice (fyi this word also means "comrade")

25일 - 성탄절 (크리스마스) / Christmas: the Christian holiday celebrating the birth of Jesus...but in Korea it's more about having a nice date with your significant other. You can see lots of decorations around and people have end of the year parties, but there's basically no mention of Jesus/Christianity and it's not an important "family holiday" the way it is in the US, for example. Also, it's a red day!

[bieups]

I'm almost positive I posted about this before, but it still makes me giggle, so here it is again!

In Animal Crossing, there's a character named Sahara who visits your island/town sometimes. She's a foreigner who doesn't really speak your language. It's neat to see how that's handled in Korean!

The biggest thing is that she is terrible at verb endings and basically never uses them correctly lol

[bieups]

2023.11.18 | 스윙댄스 뒷풀이에서 맛있게 먹었음

어제 옛날의 댄스파트너랑 강습을 했다~ 아침에 연습해서 투턴 준비했는데 지난 강습 복습하다가 갑자기 오버로테이트 스윙아웃 하자고 했다...나는 얼마나 연습해도 못 하는 동작인데 ㅠㅠ ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

학생들은 기대된 쉬블도 가르쳤는데 잘하고 재미있었다~! 뒷풀이에서 초보 팔뤄랑 중급 팔뤄 어떤 차이, 어떻게 레블업 할 수 았는지 얘기했다. 팔뤄분들이 즐겁게 배우긴 하는데 더 다양한 리더들이랑 소셜 했으면 좋겠다고 했다 ㅎㅎ 나랑 다 같이 출빠해서 진짜 소셜 뭔지 보여 주고 싶다~

리더쌤이 내가 아는 것은 강습 때 알려준 것보다 100배 더 많다면서 진심으로 칭찬했다 ㅠ 우리 같이 연습하고 있었을 땐 나중에 나 좋은 쌤 될 수 있다고 자주 했는데 이제 춤 가르치라고 해서 너무 뿌듯하다 😊

[bieups]

Today (literally right now since it's 11am here) is the day of the college entrance exams aka 수능!

I saw this cool news story about this one boys' school in Seoul that does a huge celebration for their 3rd year students (the test takers) the day before:

수능 못 볼 수가 없다 // There's no way you can't take the Suneung

전설의 수능 응원 // Legendary Suneung support/cheering

It's a rainy day in Seoul and the weather report says it's supposed to be raining everywhere by this evening. Good luck to all the test takers!

[bieups]

2023.11.11 - 전국노동자대회

Yesterday I attended the National Workers' Rally, which is held every year in November in honor of Jeon Tae-il.

[Image 1: Marching past City Hall; different unions have different colored vests & flags // Image 2: this year's poster]

120만 전태일의 반격! 퇴진광장을 열자!

1,200,000 [number of union members] Jeon Tae-il's counterattack! Let's open the resignation plaza!

노동 - 민생 - 민주 - 평화 파괴 윤석열 정권 퇴진! 전태일열사 정신계송

Destruction of Labor - Livelihood - Democracy - Peace Yoon Seok-Yeol regime, resign! Inherit the spirit of martyr Jeon Tae-il

(Sorry, I don't know how to make these slogans sound good in English lol...)

Who was Jeon Tae-il?

Jeon Tae-il worked in Seoul Peace Market (서울평화시장) in the mid-late 1960s doing sewing & other odd jobs. Although there were laws meant to protect the rights of workers, they weren't enforced. Workers were routinely forced to work unpaid overtime, injected with drugs to keep them awake, and suffered health issues like TB due to the unsanitary environments they had to work in.

In 1969, after learning about the laws, Jeon Tae-il started the first labor organization in the market, 바보회 (the Fool's Association), to educate the other workers about their rights. However, the government under dictator Park Chung-hee responded by cracking down harder on the employees trying to organize.

On November 13th, 1970 Jeon Tae-il set himself on fire and ran through the streets to bring attention to the terrible working conditions. He was 22 years old.

His death was a catalyst for people to unite in the struggle for workers' rights. Factory workers began forming unions and slowly the laws have been enforced/changed to protect workers. The struggle isn't over, though, so every year since 1988 the 전국노동자대회/National Workers' Rally has been held in Seoul.

[bieups]

11월 // November

Wow I totally forgot about this month's calendar because there's basically nothing going on...so I'm adding in a couple of socially important dates (to some of us) that aren't shown on holiday calendars~

8일 - 입동 / Ipdong: one of the 24 seasonal divisions, this day marks the beginning of winter~

16일 - 대학수학능력시험 (수능) / College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) aka the Suneung: 3rd (final) year high school students & graduates take this exam on the 3rd Thursday of November and it's a huge event. The exam starts at 8:40am and many schools & businesses open later to reduce morning traffic (my school will skip 1st period). There are more buses & subway trains running in the morning, and police have been known to escort test takers so everyone can arrive on time. Planes don't fly overhead during the English listening section to prevent distractions. Family members, teachers, and other high school students often stand outside the schools to cheer on the students as they go inside in the morning & when they come out in the evening. As for the test itself, there are 6 sections: Korean (국어), Math (수학), Korean History (한국사), English (영어), another foreign language/classical Chinese (제2외국어/한문), and other subjects (탐구) where students choose two options from one category: social studies (political science, ethics, etc.), sciences (biology, chemistry, etc.), and vocational education (agriculture, industry, etc.; only for vocational school students). There are also some options/elective topics within other sections, like math & Korean. So the test isn't exactly the same for all students! Only History is mandatory, but most candidates take all the sections except another foreign language. Students decide which subjects/topics to take based on their university plans. Different schools/majors expect applicants to take different subjects. If you don't get a good score, you can retake it the next year.

20일 - 서울 사립초 추첨일 / Seoul Private Elementary School Lottery Day: In Seoul, private elementary schools use a lottery system for admissions and they all do the lottery on the same day. There are a bunch of rules around applying and how the actual lottery is done. Previously, parent & child had to attend the lottery in person, which meant you had to choose one school in the end, but this year I think it'll be online and parents can choose 3 schools? Anyway, due to the lottery, private elementary schools don't have class on this day!

22일 - 소설 / Soseol: one of the 24 seasonal divisions, the day snow begins to fall~

[bieups]

[콩돌이: 아하! 한국에 사시는군요! 한국어를 잘하시는 이유가 있었네요!]

동물의숲 다시 시작했어요~ 콩돌이 덕분에 자신감 좀 생겼네요 ㅋㅋㅋ

[bieups]

어제 마스터컵 (aka Brewster cup) 품절됐다 ㅠㅠ

대신에 콩돌이 밤돌이 머그 샀다!

다른 동물의숲 굿즈랑 젤다 수건도 샀다 ㅎㅎ

2023.10.27

오늘 11시반부터 2시반까지 일하고

퇴근해서 닌텐도 팝업스토어 간다!!

너무 기대된다~

[bieups]

2023.10.27

오늘 11시반부터 2시반까지 일하고

퇴근해서 닌텐도 팝업스토어 간다!!

너무 기대된다~

[bieups]

Noticed the link is broken, so here's the page with the e-books:

https://epstopik.hrdkorea.or.kr/epstopik/book/self/ebookIndex.do?lang=ko

The first two are for English speakers (영어사용자)!

I was searching for some grammar stuff and stumbled upon this Korean textbook (e-book) designed specifically for self-studying!

It’s from EPS (the employment permit system), which has their own Korean proficiency exam for foreign workers. The EPS-TOPIK is pretty different from the regular TOPIK, but this textbook seems like a really great resource! It starts with Hangul and then covers a whole bunch of grammar patterns while also teaching cultural stuff. There’s a lot of industry-related vocabulary and phrases because it’s designed for migrant workers in Korea, but even if those sections aren’t personally relevant, the grammar is still useful!

(I also think a lot of people don’t realize/forget that the majority of foreigners who live in Korea aren’t teaching English or working white collar office jobs; they are working in industrial factories and agriculture, often in shitty conditions. This textbook gives a glimpse into the hiring process and the kinds of situations migrant workers need to prepare for.)

Also it’s free!

[bieups]

Some vocab. words from my tutoring sessions the past couple of weeks~

순전하다 - absolute, pure, sheer

학살 - massacre

배후 - back, rear (also used metaphorically for things like "underlying truth" or "mastermind behind ___")

거듭 - once again, once more

잇따르다 - one after another, occur in succession

억압하다 - to suppress

규탄하다 - to denounce

봉쇄하다 - to block, blockade

행사하다 - to use, wield

국한되다 - to be limited (to)

(으)로 치닫다 - to surge, to advance quickly

반토막 - half-piece (토막 = piece of wood, etc)

거론되다 - to be mentioned

일찌감치 - early

반면교사 (反面敎師) - lesson learned from a mistake

불심검문 - police questioning (does not have to be real suspicion, i.e. "stop & frisk")

짓누르다 - to weigh down, press

기리다 - to praise, honor, pay respects to

시험대에 오르다 - to be on trial, to be put to the test (lit. to go up on a test platform)

색맹주의 - color blindness (used exactly the same as in Eng: person who cannot see certain colors & person who "doesn't see race")

관용 - tolerance

육박하다 - to approach, draw near

[bieups]

Also in honor of Hangul Day, look at this adorable Korean inspired jewelry from 도도엣~! The artist is so sweet and her pieces are super cute 🥰 (I wear my little ㅂ every day)

[bieups]

Reblogging this in honor of 한글날/Hangul Day (it was yesterday)!

[1일 1포 - 13/28]

Made a post about some apps for learning Hangul (not vocab or grammar, just the alphabet), so if you want to get started with Korean, check them out :)